The fact there’s multiple dark reds and NO dark greens...

Since my last three Roma effort posts have been heavy, I wanted to do an educational but lighthearted one for International Romani Day. This one is going to be a very basic opening to Roma culture, as I doubt many here know much about it.

DISCLAIMER: Roma may be all racially similar, but there are many ‘groups’ of Roma with rather unique cultures. This primarily focuses on my experiences within Balkan Roma groups and some more well known groups such as the Kalderash of Eastern Europe.

Anyways, backstory: Roma are a group that came from India originally and made its way through Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and sometimes East Africa, then Europe. We are everywhere, from America, to Europe, to Brazil, to Palestine, and even Japan and China. (And China is one of the very few countries who was very nice to those of us who went there in the 1900s).

Language:

Romani is a complex language. It stems from Hindi and has many similarities, but we have gathered many loan words throughout various countries. But I can hardly think of another language with such confusing grammar half the time. It also doesn’t help that there are like a hundred dialects. So, for example:

Gadze, Gadje, Guyshe, Godtra, Gaja, Gayja, Gosha.

All those are ways to spell the EXACT same word but in various dialects. So it’s obvious why the language can seem similar, but it’s not always easy to communicate with other dialects. It also is hardly ever taught in written form because so many of us are illiterate. Older generations are more and more often not teaching the younger generation how to speak it. It’s a dying language.

Religion:

There is no set religion for Roma. Some are Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. Even a few Jewish Roma exist. Islam is common in the Balkans and Protestant is very common in Northern/West Europe and America. A lot of Evangelicals specifically target Roma in North Europe actually to recruit.

In my experience, Roma are not THAT religious. Culture tends to always supersede religious rules or obligations for us. For example, almost everyone in my family who is Muslim drinks alcohol because that’s just the culture.

However, we practice many holidays. For example, many French Roma will go to Sara E Kali’s (A Romani saint) pilgrimage — submerging her statue into water. Many think of this is a tradition we brought from India as it resembles Durga Puja in Hinduism. Many Balkan Roma celebrate Ederlezi — Feast of Saint George.

As for witchcraft, well, it depends on the group. Some Roma do read fortune (via tarot cards, coffee fortunes, or tea leaves). I linked some articles about it here before.

Dancing/Singing:

Sometimes stereotypes are true, and the stereotype that Roma love to dance is true. We love to dance! We have various forms too. Kocek is very popular in Balkans, here is a more common dance among Eastern European Roma that some call shuffling, we invented Flamenco (NOT UP FOR DEBATE!), and here is a video discussing Roma dancing cultural traditions .

Djelem, Djelem is what some may say is our “anthem”. It’s a beautiful song. Esma Redzepova was a lovely, famous, and passionate singer. She recently passed away. She has a fantastic voice. Here is a more modern band, Mahala Rai Banda (I love their songs!). And here is a Romani rap group, Roma Sijam. And here is a new Roma girl group, Pretty Loud, who have been singing about Roma rights — especially for women. You should definitely support them.

Anyways, anytime you listen to Balkan music, it’s probably 99% inspired by us. European music would be nothing without us. We also brought the clarinet to Europe.

Clothing:

Another thing that will vary from country to country. Women tend to wear long skirts, married women tend to cover their hair, and hats are common among men. Our skirts can be very intricate , sometimes our attire resembles Indian lehengas, and we wear lots of gold jewelry even gold teeth.

Not sure what else to add, that's really a very basic start to it all. May do a part 2 sometime, but feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

April 8th is International Romani Day. There's a lot I could say, but mostly just want to say thank you all for being a community where I don't have to be afraid to say I'm Gypsy. You'd be surprised how not all European leftists even care about us! So I appreciate you all. So thank you all, please continue to stay educated on our issues, and never be afraid to ask me any questions if you have any.

:heart-sickle:

CW FOR MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE [MENTAL, SEXUAL, AND PHYSICAL] AND CHILD DEATH

---

Wanted to make a post about the Troubled Teen Industry/#BreakingCodeSilence. The topic is gaining more discussion lately after celebrities like Paris Hilton spoke up, but many people still don’t know about it. American leftists must learn about this industry and advocate against it when possible.

I am not going to specify which one for internet safety reasons, but I have been sent to one of these so-called “therapeutic boarding schools” when I was younger. Therapeutic is a joke of a word to use here: there is hardly any therapy that isn’t just berating yourself and others around you. I'd be willing to explain more about my own situation if anyone is curious.

Who gets sent to places like these? It depends. Some of the girls there were suffering from drug addiction, misbehaviour at school, underage sex, being obviously Autistic, not obeying their parents rules 100%, or speaking out about being abused. Kids have been sent to these places for such miniscule things that I would hardly recommend a child see a therapist for let alone be sent away and locked up.

To start, I want to tell you how many children are kidnapped in the middle of the night. Parents hire escorts/transporters, and they come into the child’s room at 3am, and say, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” The hard way meaning restrained and handcuffed. They take you from your house and either drive you to the middle of nowhere or take you on a plane to the middle of nowhere. It’s a terrifying experience.

Most kids start out in wilderness programs. Advertised as a way for the child to detox from the outside world and reconnect with themselves and nature. You’re in the middle of nowhere as a child and that is scary enough regardless of how you are treated there. And most programs treat the kids badly. Kids are sleep deprived, barely given enough food, and sometimes only get to bathe once every week or so. There’s been quite a few kids who have died in these programs. I have not so much experience with wilderness, but it’s something I would never recommend.

And when kids think they’re going home once their wilderness program ends, they actually get sent to RTC/TBS (residential treatment centers/therapeutic boarding school). Hardly anyone just goes to wilderness. And this is where things get worse. Every program has its own unique horrors, but almost all of them have extremely cruel rules, forced child labour, allegations of sexual abuse, unsafe restraintment, solitary confinement, and untrained staff. Some programs have you sit and stare at a wall all day long. If you start to slouch, you have to stare for more hours. If you dare look away for even a second, you get points taken away. Points is the only way you can “advance” to the next levels to hopefully graduate the program eventually. Some programs make it so you are not allowed to talk to anyone for weeks on end. Some programs have solitary confinement. You have no privacy as you can never be alone. Not even while showering. If you act up (which can mean just looking out a window), you face the risk of being pinned down and restrained by adults twice your size. There have been many kids who died from these restraint practices which are known to be dangerous. Staff is hardly ever trained or licensed to be working in these types of places.

There are seminars that some programs do. This “therapy” tends to entirely revolve around making you believe everything in the world is your fault. Your parents aren’t at fault for anything. You are the problem. You have to take responsibility. You are a bad kid who is manipulative and will die once you leave the school. You have to write to your parents about how you are a horrible person and confess to everything bad you’ve ever done. You have to tell the girls around you how they are bad, manipulative, deserve to be raped, and will die once they leave this school too. That is no exaggeration. Those are things I have had to say to other girls around me. No child should hear that, and no person should carry the guilt for being forced to victim blame their peers.

Anyways, I could go on forever about the abuse in these programs. If you want to hear from more survivors, you can listen to the podcast Inside The Program. Or watch Paris Hilton’s documentary on Youtube. Or listen to TrueAnon’s 100th episode on the TTI, Brat Camp .

But you know what it all comes down to, in the end? Capitalism. These programs are expensive. It varies but usually like $3000-5000 per month, and you must stay for at least a year. One really popular program is $11,000 per month. I’ve known people whose parents went into debt to keep their kid locked up and abused because the programs are so good at brainwashing and convincing parents their kids will die if they leave. The staff isn’t always paid very well either, so most of the money ends up going to the people who own these schools. They rely on kids being punished so often that they keep you locked away to get your parents’ money. And they get you there in the first place by providing kickback money to Wilderness programs to convince the parents that you MUST go to one of these programs. And both of them give kickback money to therapists to recommend any of this shit in the first place.

Here’s some insight on the money aspect:

“A research brief from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimated the industry pulled in $328 million in revenue in 2015 alone and accounted for 6,400 jobs. Alaska spent more than $31 million in Medicaid funding over six years sending 511 kids to Utah. Nevada spent even more — $35 million since 2014 — sending 761 youths here, according to its Medicaid data. The St. George school had received more than $13 million in government money from six states until it closed last year after a riot.”

Yeah, so not only is America’s health insurance system terrible in every other manner, but also your tax dollars are going towards sending kids to be abused instead of providing everyone universal healthcare and good mental health services.

Politics is involved too of course. The founder of WWASP schools donates thousands of dollars to the republican party each year. Utah has had politicians be involved in these facilities. Many of these facilities don’t get inspected as often as they are meant to. Police are often aware that they should return runaways back to facilities no matter what abuse the kids say is happening there. Doctors around the facilities know to not listen to abuse allegations — and that’s for rare instances when these places actually let the kids have medical care.

Many of these programs that get shut down just get reopened under different names and “different leadership.” Usually the exact same people are still involved just behind-the-scenes. For example, Arizona Boys Ranch had a kid die there. It was the second death there, but this one got huge media Attention. 5 former staff members were indicted on child abuse and manslaughter charges, and 17 staff were put on a child abuse registry. All that happened was they changed their name right after.

And another child died there in 2020.

Anyways there’s so much more to add about all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in this industry, more on the history, and more of the people who are involved that you probably know (like Dr. Phil). Will make a part 2 eventually o7

"News server Dobrénoviny.sk reports 11-year-old chess player Agáta Berková is achieving unprecedented success in competition and has even played Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov to a draw after being trained by her father who, along with his chess team called "Hrochotskské jezdci" ("The Hippopotamus Riders"), has broken the stereotypical belief that Roma cannot play chess. Berková is a native of the Slovak town of Poltár, and her love of chess reportedly dates to the first time she sat behind a chessboard at the age of a year and a half.

In addition to being Romani, Agáta has to deal with the fact that she is a girl in the chess world, but thanks to her participation in tournaments, she has traveled all over Slovakia with her father. She did not go to Russia, but she did manage to meet Russian chess grandmaster Karpov twice to play with him.

During an exhibition performance, the chess master played her on multiple chessboards simultaneously - and ultimately, it was a draw. Agáta has also played champion Tomáš Krňan of Canada to a draw.

When Agáta was even younger, she frequently competed in tournaments with adult players. Berko remembers one adult competitor who, according to him, could have scored as high as 1800 on the Elo skill-rating system, but when the contestant realized he was losing to a girl - and a Romani girl at that - he angrily threw the pieces away after his loss.

For her part, Agáta has said she would like to attain a good education in addition to winning great chess results. "I would either like to become a divorce lawyer, or a scientist to invent a cure for my brothers who suffer from autism," the promising chess player, who also gets good grades at school, told the Dobrénoviny.sk server.

In the GPX competition, Agáta was the Slovak champion in the eight-year-old and younger category. She finished fifth at the European Championships."

Very cute and uplifting story :)

Since the enslavement of Romani people is so unknown yet so vast, I wanted to compile a little timeline to put it in to perspective on the anniversary of Romanian emancipation. This doesn't include everything because there is just far too much and also a word limit here.

1100s: King Muhmud of Ghazni used slave warriors to destroy all the Sindh and Punjab peoples in India. These warriors would be some of the earliest beginnings of the Romani people.

Romanian Slavery (1385-1864): This is some of the most severe slavery Roma have gone through. It was generational slavery (as it did last 500 years), so children of slaves were slaves. It became a familial line which is important later on. Extreme physical punishment was commonly given out. Women were often involved in sex slavery by being raped by their owners and any visitors — as many masters considered it polite to offer these sexual favours to guests. Many Romanian Roma nowadays are more lighterskinned, and this can be traced back to this. The Catholic Orthodox Church was also a large slaveholder.

1498: Columbus brings Romani slaves to American colonies.

1500-1700: Spain sent Roma to be enslaved in Louisiana colonies

1500-1700: France sent Roma to be enslaved in the modern day Caribbean.

1500-1700: Dutch sent Roma to be enslaved in modern day Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and more.

1500s: Beginning in the 1500s, Portugal mass deports Roma slaves to Brazil, Africa, and India

1514: All Roma in England were branded with a “V” and forced into two years of slave labor. Attempted escapes were punished by being branded again and now being enslaved for life.

1560: All Roma in Spain eventually sent to galley slavery

1561: France previously banned Roma from the country, so if you were found in the country, you were sentenced to slavery.

1650-1775: Scotland sent Roma to be enslaved in Panama, Novascotia, New Jersey, and Georgia.

1658-1700s: England sends Roma slaves to many Southern state plantations and Caribbean. Mass arrest and deportations occur.

1672-1678: France and Dutch Republic both force Roma to fight for them. Afterwards, the Dutch slaughtered all Roma, even those who fought for them. This was known as the “heathen hunt.”

1700s: Scotland has Roma slaves work in coal mines.

1700s: In Jamaica, Roma woman were almost all sex slaves. Freed Black slaves were given Roma slaves.

1733: Russia’s Empress declares Roma to be slaves to the crown

1749: Great Gypsy Round-up occurs in Spain. All Roma arrested and forced into slave labor, including very young children. The operation was funded by confiscated goods and homes of the Roma.

1839: There were up to a quarter of a million Roma slaves in Romania.

1864: Romania abolishes slavery. Many remained fully dependent on local landowners and authorities after. A lot of Romanian Roma ‘tribes’ can be traced back specifically to what labor they did during slavery.

Holocaust (1933-1945): Roma were some of the forced workers who built the labor camps, many of whom would die in the camps the built. Forced labor occurred in many concentration camps. Around 2 million Roma died in the Holocaust.

Nowadays, Roma are still the most heavily trafficked group in the world for reasons such as forced labour, sex trafficking, illegal adoption. This is in many places, but here are just a few stats to show the severity: "Roma constitute only approximately 7% of the total Hungarian population. A police source estimated that 80% of trafficked persons are Romani. According to information provided by two NGOs supplying services to prostitutes/sex workers in destination countries (Switzerland and the Netherlands), approximately 25-30% of their beneficiaries are Hungarian women, of which 80% are Romani, a large number of whom have been trafficked and/or are exploited."

You can read more about trafficking in Europe here.

And to leave it off, here is this: "A grim illustration of the silent normalization of extremist attitudes and opinions can be found under the most mundane forms: internet comments. In the section for opinions and comments, at the end of media articles on the long history of the Roma slavery in the Romanian Principalities, some readers are openly stating that the only sad part about the Romani enslavement, from their perspective, was its abolition. A number of other comments were patronizing the daring act of Romani activism, associating Roma people with second-class citizens who should not have a saying in the matters of society. Most of all, since when do they have an informed opinion? Aren’t they supposed to be stealing something or destroy our calm as decent citizens?"

This is going to be a long post full of lots of quotes. Just a warning.

Romania: “In the first years of the Communist regime, a previously unimaginable phenomenon in relation to the Gypsies showed itself: a relatively large number of Gypsies were employed in the Party apparatus, the militia, army and the security apparatus.”(1) However this also came along with the government making them stop being nomadic and settle in houses. A lot of times being forced into these better houses meant taking a primarily Roma community, demolishing it, and then dispersing them to various different neighborhoods. So it may seem fine, but that’s forced assimilation. It is one thing to be given the option for better housing and to have your house completely obliterated and forced to move. Especially since many of these demolished communities had been there for centuries, as a group. And families/”groups” is an extremely important value in Roma culture.

From my own knowledge of the groups of Roma in Romanian, many of them did suffer due to this forced assimilation. Many groups are looked down upon because they barely practice certain cultural norms or speak the language. The culture is so deeply intertwined with the racial identity of being Romani that to some other Roma, these groups are barely considered Romani at all. It also has to be said that Romania has some of the most wealthy Roma in certain parts of the country — primarily ones who made their money selling metal after the fall of Communism.

USSR: The USSR definitely has a fascinating history involving Gypsies. They were one of the first nations who forced nomadic Roma to become non-nomads, as many of the countries did. There were a lot of propaganda books written in the Roma language to teach Roma how to be proper citizens: such as suggesting Roma women give up fortune telling, that working in factories is best, etc.(2)

“Hundreds of Romani citizens themselves lobbied Moscow for a Soviet Gypsy homeland as a key to their integration into Soviet economic, social, and cultural life. In 1936, the chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities celebrated the anticipated creation of an Autonomous Gypsy Soviet Socialist Republic.”(3) Of course that never really came to be — nor am I really sure it would have ended well if it did happen — but this is one of the rare times in history a proposal like this was ever genuinely considered. A lot of the successful Roma in the USSR were farmers of land given to them by the Soviets. A lot of these farmers are those who ended up trying to propose the Autonomous Gypsy region. That is a pretty big deal because back then and nowadays, Roma really weren’t involved in politics. Ultimately the idea was thrown away and never allowed to happen. This was primarily scrapped because Soviets couldn’t fully embrace the idea it would be successful due to them believing Roma were inherently incapable of successful, sedentary lives and that it would be a waste of money. However, the fact it did come so close to reality is pretty astounding.

Hungary: “In 1987 the Hungary’s Communist government funded a genetic study of Gypsies that purported to prove that Gypsy ‘criminality’ is hereditary.” Hungary is by far one of the most cruelly antiziganist countries and this was true even under communism. “In Hungary in 1961 special measures were envisaged against the discrimination of Roma in Hungarian society, and the housing program of 1964 envisaged liquidation of 2.500 Roma separate settlements.”(4) Many ended up employed, but it did come with the price of being forced out of their communities and giving up many cultural practices.

Though it’s not like things were better after Communism in Hungary. “Since the fall of the communist regime the economic situation of Hungary's Romas has worsened dramatically. The unemployment rate among Hungary's Romas is now between 60 and 70 % of adult males and in some regions, the rate is between 80 and 100%.”(5) In this year alone, antiziganist marches were held. Hungary admitted to purposefully segregating Roma in education — and then the Prime Minister came out to disagree with the ruling by saying Roma kids are violent.

Yugoslavia: There is more to say, but overall, I feel Yugoslavia did pretty well. “The situation in Yugoslavia is a specific case. In an 1969 article, Slobodan Berberski — Rom and Communist functionary of long standing, political prisoner, resistance fighter from the WW2, member of the Central Committee of the Union of Yugoslav Communists — announced that Yugoslav Roma would create their own organization, which had the main aim to assist Roma to achieve the status of a “nationality.” In the 1970s over 60 Roma organizations existed and their number was constantly on the increase. Various initiatives, largely cultural events, were supported by the Yugoslav state; books were published in Romani, Roma TV and radio broadcasts began. In 1986 existing Roma associations united in a Union of Roma Associations in Yugoslavia.”(6)

Czechoslovakia: In Czechoslovakia, Roma were given allotted land for farming and some aspects of social support, under the Communist government, there was still extreme racism and forced assimilation. “As Communism came over to Czechoslovakia, a chilling ‘solution’ to the proliferation of the Roma came about: the uninformed and non-consenting sterilization of Roma women, often under the guise of caesarean sections and abortions, and under pressure from social workers who would get their uninformed consent with promises of cash and tangible goods.”(7) Half of the women who were sterilized in Czechoslovakia were Roma women.

Many children were stolen from their families and made to be raised and/or educated by non-Roma families. This happened (and still happens) a lot under non-Communist governments too. There were also proposals about making Ghettos for Roma specifically during these times. As well, there were limits on how many Roma could be in a specific place. “A planned programme for transferring Roma from overcrowded settlements in Slovakia and dispersing them to suitable locations in the Czech lands. A maximum permissible portion of Roma per community was set at 5%. As a Romani spokesman sardonically commented: ‘They planned the numbers for each village - horses, cows and Gypsies’.”(8)

Post-Communism was not good either. “Observers note a marked increase in hate crimes committed against Roma victims in central and Eastern Europe since the collapse of communism. Although the Roma have always been a socially and economically marginalized population in Eastern Europe, now more than ever Roma communities and neighborhoods are often found lacking in electricity and clean water.”(9)

Overall, I think it is important to look into history and see how certain policies affected certain groups. Honestly I shied away from calling myself a “communist” for a while because of this history. Where do Gypsies belong in a communist society, if the only examples we have are ones that ultimately viewed us as problems? How does a good communist society allow for people to not be forced to integrate and assimilate if they do not wish to? Does the better living situations/employment outweigh the need to hold onto cultural practices? Do non-Roma get to decide who is worthy of communism if we do not fully conform to the society (without trying to actively undermine it either)? I am not trying to start a struggle session, believe me. But I believe it is important for everyone — white communists and other nonWhite communists who likely benefit from antiziganism too — to look into the history of Romani people, both under communism/socialism and other types of governments. We are one of the world’s most persecuted groups, and our history does matter in how we go about the future. We always want to strive to do better.

I’ll leave it off on this note: “On the one hand, living conditions of Roma and their educational level has seen a rapid improvement in comparison with past historic periods, the degree of their integration has grown, and considerable strata of relatively well educated Roma have emerged etc. On the other hand, however, the price paid for this integration is quite high.” (10)

Disclaimer: Not all these sources are exactly pro-Communism, but most are unbiased and focused on facts. Some of them also come across vaguely antiziganist. You would be hard pressed to find a source that is 100% without antiziganism and antiCommunism, so I tried my best. Also no struggle session on whether these govs were "actually communist/socialist" please. Let us just be respectful of Roma history. Also I am a tankie so don't try to make me seem anti-commie as well. ALSO I am Roma so it's fine that I said Gypsy. Okay, that's all.

Links for sources.